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Adobe house style is defined by its reddish-brown exterior, intentional design, and a cozy, community-oriented feel.
Review our collection of Adobe Style House Plans
Originating from the native Pueblo people, stories of adobe houses date back to the 9th century, when structured homes were first engineered to protect communities from the harsh summer days and cool desert nights.
Thanks to a distinctive, purposeful design, adobe houses are well-suited to warm climates, namely the Southwestern United States, from California and Santa Fe to New Mexico.
Keep reading to explore what makes an adobe style home, its history, build costs, and the difference between adobe and Pueblo-style houses. Let’s dive in.
Luxury One-Story Home with Walkout Basement, Grand Room, and Expansive Deck
What is an Adobe Style House?
Adobe is a type of building material, known as dried mud brick, traditionally made from compacting soil, sand, clay, grass, and water, before baking it in the sun for several months to achieve a smooth, strong finish.
Adobe style refers to homes constructed of earthy materials, using the same design techniques used by the indigenous Pueblo people, with characteristically smooth exterior walls built from natural substances, like dried desert grasses and clay.
Features of adobe style houses include:
- Flat roofs and parapets: Traditionally designed to trap and divert rainwater
- Rounded edges: Instead of corners and 90-angles, edges are rounded, including walls, doorways, and kiva fireplaces
- Porches and fountain courtyards: Covered outdoor spaces provide a place to enjoy the outdoors while escaping the harsh sun
- Deeply set windows: Designed to shade the home from the sun and keep it cool during the day
- Earthy exterior: To complement their native surroundings, houses possess rich earthy exterior colors, including warm reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, and browns
Impressive 4-Bedroom Home Plan with Cozy Porches
What are the Advantages of Adobe Homes?
Adobe houses are designed with intention, which is why their architecture is particularly well-suited to their native climates, namely the American southwest, like New Mexico and California.
With many advantages, particularly in warmer areas, residents enjoy:
- Temperature control: Organic materials absorb heat during the day and release it at night, keeping residents cool during the hot days and warm on cool desert nights
- Organic materials: Derived from natural materials, adobe style houses invite residents to live in a home intertwined with earth and nature
- Strong and long-lasting structure: Built to last, adobe houses are resilient to their native climate, with modern tweaks to their construction offering even more durability
- Blended exterior: Adobe homes have a unique reddish-brown exterior, which reveals its true beauty in natural light and blends seamlessly into desert landscapes
What are the Disadvantages of Adobe Homes?
Some of the disadvantages of adobe style homes include:
- Best suited to dry climates: Prolonged water exposure can erode the dried mud brick, making adobe houses largely unsuitable for rainy or snowy climates
- Unstable during seismic activity: Like many homes, it isn't well-suited to regions prone to earthquakes, as even with reinforcement, the mud brick can become unstable
- Challenging in cold climates: Dried mud brick offers clever temperature control, but it can be challenging to keep adobe houses warm in colder temperatures
Spacious 3-Bedroom Home Plan with 3.5 Baths and Courtyard Garage
How Long Do Adobe Houses Last?
Originally, adobe style homes were built with purpose and designed to last. In native climates, adobe style houses can last for centuries, thanks to a smart construction specifically tailored to withstand the natural surroundings.
Today, adobe house plans are durable homes, capable of lasting just as long as traditional modern buildings, particularly in 'native' conditions – like those found in New Mexico, Santa Fe, and San Francisco.
For extra reinforcement to suit modern climates, the organic materials follow modern building codes and are often mixed with asphalt, lime, and cement to increase strength and water resistance. The dried mud brick is also kiln-dried to speed up the construction.
Key Differences Between Adobe and Pueblo Style Homes
While adobe style homes are believed to have originated from native Pueblo people living in southwest America over a thousand years ago, they possess subtle differences compared to Pueblo style homes (another type of southwestern house plans).
Adobe Style Houses
Adobe style houses typically feature single-storey buildings with flat roofs. While some adobe houses possess a first floor, the overall shape of the building remains low to the ground, with more width as opposed to height, to blend the home into its surroundings.
Pueblo Style Houses
Pueblo style houses are traditionally much larger, featuring multi-stories and a more vertical design, making the home more of a focal point in a landscape. They also possess thinner walls and central plazas, in keeping with the social nature of traditional pueblo constructions.
How Much Does It Cost to Build An Adobe Style Home?
Adobe style homes are unique, aesthetically pleasing, and extremely durable, making them one of America’s most desirable homes in the southwest region and one of our most popular southwestern house plans.
Building an adobe house can cost between $150 and $250 per square foot, with a typical mid-sized adobe home (2000 sqft) costing between $300,000 and $500,000 built by professional contractors.
Factors that affect the cost can include the availability of the earth and organic materials in the region, and how suitable the traditional building technique is for the climate. For example, in rainy areas, reinforcements and more tailored adobe bricks may be needed to enhance water resistance.
Personal preferences can also influence the cost of build, like the addition of specific architectural features and designs to add grandiosity, customization, and aesthetic appeal.
Summary
Adobe style homes possess unique character and charm, all the while providing a resilient living space and solid construction for a reasonable build cost.
Ready to uncover your perfect architectural design? Explore our range of adobe house plans to find your ideal living space today.
